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French president Nicolas Sarkozy drew heat last month when he suggested that countries should factor happiness into their statistics for growth. After all, Sarkozy campaigned on promises of wealth creation, and rejigging the data to include France's welfare system, famously generous holidays, and je ne sais quoi seems like an easy way to fulfill a promise he is struggling to keep...
Despite its flaws, GDP has proved hard to replace - if only because it provides a single number which nations can use to measure themselves against neighbors and rivals. At an OECD conference in Korea later this month, attendees will try to develop an array of measures that take into account broader definitions of well-being. They have their work cut out for them. While the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan measures its gross national happiness, no major economy has followed suit...
...cost of filling an otherwise empty room is virtually nothing. Plus, it brings in customers who may return to the hotel in the future - and spend cash. Hill, who trades roughly $100,000 a year through the service, uses his credit to pay the hotel's $650-a-month flower bill, and recently refurnished eight of the hotel's rooms without spending a penny. He's also purchased jewelry through barter and then resold it to hotel guests for a profit. The system works for personal use, too. Hill's wife has spent the hotel's barter credits on cosmetic...
...month after President Obama said he would scrap his predecessor's plans to place a U.S. missile-defense shield in Poland, Vice President Joe Biden announced that the East European ally would, in fact, host interceptors in a revamped version of the system. Obama's decision to remove Poland from the antiballistic-missile program had irked Warsaw, which viewed the deal as providing integral protection against potential long-range attacks...
Aitor Elizarán Aguilar, the political leader of the Basque separatist group ETA, and a top aide were captured in France on Oct. 19 amid a crackdown against the organization. The arrests followed the detention earlier this month of 10 accused members of a banned, ETA-linked political party; three military leaders have also been snared in the past year. Authorities have intensified their pursuit of the Spanish group since a 2006 bombing at Madrid's airport. ETA has been blamed for more than 820 deaths since...